Paul Heyman was a guest on the Steve Austin podcast last night on the WWE Network. Before beginning the podcast, Austin said that he wanted to send his best wishes to those dealing with the flooding in Texas and then welcomed Heyman. Heyman said that he feels humbled to be there, but feels like he should be the one interviewing Austin and said that it’s disconcerting to be asked questions, because with everything that he’s done, Austin should be the one being asked questions. Austn said that Heyman hustled his way into the business when he was 14 years old, so there is a lot of stuff to discuss and said that Heyman has been on the show before and discussed their personal history together, working in WCW and ECW and credited Heyman with teaching him how to cut a promo.

Austin said that he didn’t remember when they just met, to which Heyman noted that they met at Center Stage where WCW taped television and noted that Austin was sitting on a crate with his then-wife with a big knee brace on and said that Jim Ross and himself were going over the show and Heyman kept noticing this striking blonde that was Austin and that Ross said that Austin and Rod Price were a hell of a tag team, but that Austin had something special. Heyman noted that he was going to say hello, but that Austin had gone to get into his gear. Heyman said that he saw Austin hit the ropes and never saw anyone hit the ropes as frantically as Austin did and he thought he was going to fall through the ropes or break the ring and felt that if Austin had that much ferocity, he knew that Austin was something special and told Jim Ross that they just scored by hiring him. Heyman said that he introduced himself to Austin and 5 weeks later, they were together as manager and wrestler. Austin said that they always got along, but when The Dangerous Alliance was put together, Austin was the final member and Heyman’s suggestion. Heyman said that he was suspended by Jim Herd, but Jim Crockett got hum back in via a power play and that they were going to build a new Four Horsemen style group based around Rick Rude. Heyman said that he called Dusty Rhodes and said that this was going to blow away the Horsemen, but they were missing one piece and said that Dusty loved the group, but asked who and Heyman noted that it was Austin. Dusty said that Austin was a good kid, but questioned why he was the one. Heyman said that Austin was from Texas and reminded him of Dusty and that Dusty said that he knew that the next big star was going to be from Texas and gave him the green light. Heyman said that he went and told Rick Rude that Austin was going to be in the group and Rude quipped that it was good for Steve Austin, but Heyman noted that Rude was okay with Austin being added to the group. Austin said that means a lot to him, because he had so much respect for Rick Rude. Heyman said that Austin had a buzz coming out of Texas and said that the way that Austin hit the ropes and locked up with people, there was an intensity to it and it looked like a fight where so many guys looked too smooth.

Austin said that he didn’t want to keep talking about himself and questioned when Brock Lesnar was going to make his return to the ring. Heyman said that he thinks it is public knowledge that Brock is coming back very soon. Heyman said that Lesnar has been on his farm and owns property in the United States and Canada and said that Brock is the son of a dairy farmer and that with all the money he has made in the WWE and UFC, he goes back and buys more farmland and goes back to being a farmer and a hunter, because that is who he is in his heart. Austin said that he has been trying to go hunting with Lesnar and asked Heyman if he could line it up. Heyman said that he can try to line it up, but he can’t join in. Austin asked if Brock was really planning to return to the UFC or if he was just leveraging things with the WWE. Heyman said that Brock opened up a mini-training camp in January in the event that he didn’t make a new deal with the WWE in advance of doing a full training camp and said that he never got so far mentally as to wonder who his first opponent was going to be, but had the mindset of crushing anyone that he fought. Heyman said that Brock’s last run was so fun and they had a run in the last year that they enjoyed, but the deal was coming up. Heyman said that he is an athlete, a hunter and a predator who views himself as the baddest man on the planet and in his fourth fight, he beat the hell out of Randy Couture to the point that the fight was stopped in the second round and he did all that while battling diverticulitis and wondered what he could do now that he was completely healthy, even at 37 years old and said that he was enjoying the WWE for the first time because he’s never had the chance to really sit back and reflect and enjoy it. Austin said that some people paint that Brock Lesnar doesn’t enjoy the business. Heyman said that Lesnar loves the business, but he loves his children more and when Brock appears, it is special and the most wonderful night of the year is Christmas Eve, but if that happened every night, then it would lose the meaning. Austin asked if Heyman would be willing to do more outside of working with Brock Lesnar and said that he is really Brock’s advocate and it means that he’s Brock’s guy with someone else and the only person it worked with was CM Punk because of their friendship and said that he played two different characters. The talk then moved to CM Punk and Austin asked if has spoken to CM Punk lately. Heyman said that they text every day and that they have a friendship based outside of the business, so they talk all of the time. Austin asked what he thought of Punk’s chances in the UFC. Heyman said that money isn’t the motivating factor in CM Punk’s life, but the challenge to do it and accomplish something and thinks Punk regrets not doing it 5 years earlier, but that now is the time to do it and he’s either going to go in and shock everyone, or he’s going to get knocked out or have to tap out and he is man enough to walk in there and take his chances and be okay with whatever happens.

Austin then talked about the state of the business and selling and talked about the DDT move and how when Jake Roberts nailed it, that you knew the other guy was staying down and said that he sees guys doing DDT’s all night and asked about the state of the business and said that the guys today are better athletes than he was, but you also have to work extremely hard and extremely smart. Heyman said that The Rock’s father used to win matches with a dropkick, to which Austin pointed out that Heyman booked all the craziness in ECW. Austin asked if guys need to sell more, to which Heyman said that if they gave Mark Henry the headlock and he made guys tap by squeezing it and no one else was allowed to use it, that in 30 weeks, it would be over as a hell of a finisher and said that the wrestlers and the announcers have to protect the move in order for it to work, but it can happen. Austin said that WWE had a damn good edition of RAW and there were some good promos on the show, pointing out the Kevin Owens and John Cena segment and talked about the art of the promo. Heyman said that you have to ask where the money is and brought up a story about working his first Starrcade pay-per-view and that his promo got switched and he had to close the show and do a promo with no time other than being told that he would have a 5-second countdown and that he done this long, crazy promo and thought he done a great job, but when he returned, Dusty Rhodes told him that it was entertaining, but it wasn’t going to draw money and said that he never forgot what Dusty told him. Heyman said that old school is new school with a different twist and you have to ask where the money is in something. Austin then talked about the different factors that work for different performers and brought up The Ultimate Warrior and said that just because you have someone who can cut a promo doesn’t mean that he should always get 5 minutes to talk unless it makes sense. Heyman said that if you don’t, you give someone enough rope to hang themselves and said that he will talk to any young talents that want to speak to him, but he doesn’t force his opinions on anyone and said that he believes there is a disconnect with people coming out every week and pontificating by saying, last week here on RAW, so he came up with his my name is Paul Heyman stuff to engage the audience and introduce himself to anyone who doesn’t know his role. Austin said that if the message isn’t heartfelt, it won’t resonate. Austin said that he hates when two guys have microphones and one responds while one is talking, without holding up the mic and speaking his mind and said that is a guy burying himself.

Heyman then talked about meeting Vince McMahon Sr. and making his first $50 from him and showed a photo of Vince Sr, to which Heyman noted that he took that photograph and said that he figured out where Vince Sr took people to eat after events, so he called and said that he met Vince McMahon Sr at the restaurant and was told to call for a press pass and he talked himself past everyone until he got to Vince Sr and got the pass, went to the office to get his pass and made his way to Madison Square Garden into the photographer’s room and knew he needed to get to ringside and if he did, he needed to be hidden. Heyman noted that he got a photo of Andre The Giant and Vince McMahon Sr in the hallway and the next month, he waited until Vince Sr was alone and gave him the photo and that security tried to pull him away, but Heyman said that he had a press pass and that Howard Finkel asked him if he took the photo and Heyman said yes and that he can have it. Heyman said that he was given $50 for his troubles and was told to come every month and take pictures for the program or posters and that every month, they would give him $50 to cover his transport. Austin then asked about the differences between television syndication then and now. Heyman said that they would bicycle the tapes from station to station and if someone came into the territory, you fought them off and when cable television came about, Joe Blanchard was the first person to cut a deal on the USA Network and that Ole Anderson had been looking at expanding into Ohio with Superstation TBS and said that when Vince McMahon bought the promotion from his father, it was a different distribution era due to true national cable television and that wiped out the local television scene. Austin asked if Vince McMahon Sr was loyal to the territory system. Heyman said that if Vince McMahon Sr was 5 years younger, would he have honored the territory boundaries or would he have done it himself and noted that Jim Crockett, Jim Barnett and Bill Watts all had designs and that McMahon, if he was younger, would have had to do it. Heyman said that he didn’t know Vince McMahon Sr well enough to know whether he could be agggressive enough to do it. Austin then asked Heyman about people hating Vince. Heyman then told stories of Captain Lou Albano drinking all day before the Madison Square Garden shows and didn’t like the transition and would start ragging on Vince McMahon Jr and would get fired and someone would track down Lou Albano, sober him up with coffee and he would be rehired and that this would happen all the time.

Heyman was asked about his relationship with Vince McMahon and said that they get along better now that he is not trying to save the industry and said that when he was hired in 2001, he was hired to give the contrarian opinion and always gave one, leading to his opinion getting smacked down until he was sick of it and admitted fatherhood has mellowed him out and said that Austin used to know how he was and said that he had never done one line of cocaine because he had fear that it would blow up his heart and he was fearful of his father standing over his grave saying, you threw your life away for this and said that he used to live and die by every segment of television. Austin said that he was scripting SmackDown and wanted to beat RAW and he did and said that he probably went too far when he had the announcers call RAW the “B-Show”. Austin then asked about the infamous plane ride between Heyman and Vince McMahon in 2006 and Heyman said that he was fighting so hard for ECW when it was resurrected and that he had lost his passion and asked Vince to give him SmackDown because maybe Vince would be less likely to change the writing of someone else on ECW. Heyman said that he was burnt out, tired and couldn’t find his way anymore and they had a really, really bad show and Heyman and Vince had it out and Heyman looked at it like, look what you did to my brand, while Vince looked at it like, look what you did to my investment and by the end of the plane ride, Vince wanted Heyman to go home and Heyman said that he was happy to do so and that it took 5 and a half years before they both realized it was a lesson they learned from. Both sides then discussed some road stories. The podcast closed with Heyman pushing Stone Cold to return to the ring and wrestle Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32 since it will be in Texas. Austin said that he would whip Brock Lesnar’s a**, but it would have to be a Texas Death Match and said that they would have to have all the stars align to put it work. Austin put over Lesnar’s ability and then began to go into Stone Cold promo mode, acting as if he was angry stating that he was here on his show asking questions, but if people want to start poking him, then he’s going to get riled up and told Heyman that his man wasn’t here to protect him and told Heyman that he needed to leave and said that he needed to go drink a beer and think about some stuff and then signed off and said that he was happy to be back on the WWE Network.